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Change Is A Human Growth System

October 21, 2026

According to Sarah Browning-de Villiers, B2B, EX, Internal Comms and Change Strategist, Publicis Groupe Africa, companies that outperform will not be those that avoid change, but those that convert it into trust, adoption, engagement and growth amongst workforces.

Never has change been more certain, frequent and, exhausting. Employees are required to learn something new, do something differently, innovate against something just launched (or not yet launched) almost daily. Leaders must pivot even faster.

While a culture of innovation is critical for future-proofing businesses, the destabilising and fatiguing effect on an organisation’s workforce can have the opposite effect: grinding innovation, effectiveness and energy to a halt; igniting a culture of ‘quiet quitting’; and crippling a company’s bottom-line despite stellar strategy and all of the best intentions.

Transformation is too often treated as a programme to be delivered to people. But when you build change with your employees, making internal communication and employee experience foundations of the value-creation model from the start, you can turn change into a powerful growth lever.

In a 2023 study, Prosci reported that 88% of participants with excellent change management programmes met or exceeded project objectives, compared with 13% of those with poor programmes. McKinsey, meanwhile, found that fewer than one-third of surveyed transformations improved performance and sustained those improvements, while even successful transformations captured an estimated 67% of their maximum potential financial benefit on average (2021).

The lesson is clear: change creates growth when it is designed around adoption, and it creates good when employees have voice, agency, clarity and the opportunity to benefit from the future they are helping to build.

Stop Managing Change. Start Designing Adoption

Most transformation plans are strong on technical delivery and thin on the people system required to make the change stick. They specify the platform, process, structure and launch date, but give less attention to the employee behaviours that will release the promised value. Technology creates potential. Adoption converts that potential into value.

A stronger approach begins with the adoption outcome. What must people understand, believe, do differently and sustain? At its simplest: why are we doing this, and what impact does this have on people’s day-to-day? Internal communication, learning, manager enablement and employee experience can then be designed against those outcomes, rather than added shortly before launch.

Treat Trust as Transformation Infrastructure

Trust is not a soft backdrop to change. It determines whether employees believe the case for change, share concerns early, experiment with new behaviours and advocate for the organisation when the transformation becomes difficult.

Edelman’s 2024 Trust at Work research identified a 32-point gap between associates and executives in average trust across major institutions. Only 19% of associates trusted their CEO to tell the truth about the organisation, compared with 52% of executives. This is a warning against assuming that executive confidence in a change is shared throughout the organisation.

Microsoft’s transformation is frequently framed as a shift from a ‘know-it-all’ culture to a ‘learn-it-all’ culture. The culture-change emphasised growth mindset, collaboration and learning, helping create the organisational conditions for the company’s strategic shift towards cloud and AI. Microsoft’s internal communications team has also described two-way communication, employee dialogue and trust-building as central to supporting continued cultural and technological change.

For communicators, the answer is not more messaging. It is visible leadership, honest trade-offs, credible manager conversations and feedback loops that lead to action. The trust measure is not whether employees heard the announcement. It is whether they believe they can participate safely and meaningfully in what happens next. People do not only assess the message. They assess whether leaders listen, whether actions match words, and whether their reality is recognised.

Make Employee Experience a Growth Strategy

Employee experience is often discussed as engagement, wellbeing or employer brand. Those are important, but the commercial argument is more direct: the experience of work shapes the quality, pace and consistency with which strategy is executed.

Gallup’s 2024 Q12 meta-analysis covered 736 studies, 347 organisations, 53 industries, 90 countries and more than 3.3 million employees. It found that employee engagement was related to all 11 performance outcomes studied, including profitability, productivity, customer loyalty, turnover, safety, quality and wellbeing. Business units in the top half of engagement more than doubled their odds of success compared with those in the bottom half.

As one example of this, high-friction employee rituals (like how they undergo performance reviews, experience payroll or their IT frustrations) can quietly undermine the behaviours a growth strategy needs. Performance systems, leadership habits, workflows, tools and communication channels all teach employees what the organisation genuinely values.

Change leaders should therefore map the moments that matter in the employee journey and remove the points of friction that block the future state. Ask not only, ‘What do employees need to know?’, but also, ‘What will make the new behaviour easier, more meaningful and more rewarding than the old one?’ Don’t underestimate the damage being done to your organisation’s trust gap when you tell your workforce to be agile and solutions-orientated, but then provide them with technology, support functions or ways of working that are incongruous to this.

Build the Capability to Change Continuously and Responsibly

The final shift is from treating change as a once-off intervention to building organisational change capability. This means developing leaders, managers and employees who can make sense of change, test new approaches, learn quickly and adapt without losing connection to purpose.

McKinsey’s 2025 research describes an environment in which the average employee experiences ten planned change programmes a year, five times the level reported a decade earlier. It argues that organisations need to match change methods to different levels of transformation and reinvention, rather than applying one standard toolkit to every initiative.

Growth does not come from a single announcement. It involves changes to organisational habits: how leaders behave, how employees receive and discuss information, how teams collaborate, how performance is managed and how technology becomes embedded in work.

This is also where growth and good meet. Responsible change does not avoid hard decisions, but it makes impact visible, involves affected people where possible, builds capability and distributes the benefits of transformation more deliberately. It recognises that sustainable growth depends on the health and agency of the human system producing it.

The future belongs to organisations that understand a simple truth: transformation is not only a technology challenge, a process challenge or a strategy challenge. It is a human challenge.

Change becomes a force for growth when employees adopt it. It becomes a force for good when employees can help shape it, build capability through it and see a credible place for themselves in the future it creates. Organisations that can do both will be better placed to turn uncertainty into resilience, innovation and sustainable performance.

PUBLICIS GROUPE AFRICA
https://publicisgroupeafrica.com/

Effie Awards South Africa Announces 2026 Winners

Rae

October 21, 2026

Effie Awards South Africa Announces 2026 Winners

Following another record year for entries, this year’s Effie Awards recognised 45 finalists and awarded 27 trophies: one Grand Effie, four Gold, ten Silver and twelve Bronze. The event was held at The Venue, Melrose Arch on 20 October.

Hosted by the Association for Communication and Advertising (ACA), this year’s celebration also introduced South Africa’s first Effie Marketer of the Year and Agency of the Year recognitions, awarded to Women for Change and Joe Public respectively.

The Grand Effie, the highest honour recognising South Africa’s most effective campaign of the year, was awarded to Edelman South Africa and Women for Change for ‘The Unburied Casket’ in the Non-Profit category.

Gillian Rightford, ACA, Effie Awards South Africa with 2026 Grand Effie Award winners Candice Marescia and Wandile Cindi, Edelman South Africa.

View highlights from ‘Inside the Judges’ Room with the 2026 South Africa Grand Effie Jury’ here.

‘This year’s winners demonstrate the extraordinary possibilities when a clear understanding of the challenge meets bold creativity and rigorous measurement. The work shows how effective marketing can build businesses, shift behaviour and make a meaningful contribution to society. We congratulate the agency and client teams behind these achievements and look forward to building on this momentum in 2027, continuing to champion work that proves its impact,’ said Gillian Rightford, ACA Executive Director for Effie South Africa.

Introducing Marketer of the Year and Agency of the Year

For the first time in South Africa, Effie recognised organisations whose work has made its mark across the programme through two new titles: Marketer of the Year, awarded to Women for Change, and Agency of the Year, awarded to Joe Public.

These recognitions celebrate performance across a body of effective work. They are determined by the points earned through the year’s Effie finalists and winners, using the Effie Index methodology.

New Leadership for the 2027 Programme

Effie South Africa also announced its incoming committee leadership and Jury Co-Chairs for the 2027 programme, which commences following the awards ceremony held on 20 October 2026.

Refilwe Maluleke, Executive Head of Marketing for Discovery Health, takes over as Effie South Africa Committee Chair, succeeding Anwar Jappie, whose tenure concludes with the 2026 programme. Neo Makhele, Chief Strategy Officer at Ogilvy South Africa, assumes the role of Deputy Chair.

The incoming Effie Jury Co-Chairs are Fran Luckin, Co-Chief Creative Officer of Boundless, and Mandisa Theko-Khitsane, Marketing Executive at Sanlam Retail Mass.

‘We thank Anwar for his leadership and commitment to Effie South Africa throughout his tenure as Chair, and Refilwe Maluleke and Ahmed Tilly for their dedication and rigorous oversight as Jury Co-Chairs over the past three years. As we welcome Refilwe, Neo, Fran and Mandisa into their new roles, we look forward to the experience, perspective and care they will bring to the programme. Their collective leadership will help us build on its success, uphold the professionalism and rigour of our judging process, and ensure that strong jury oversight continues to underpin every Effie awarded,’ said Rightford.

2026 Effie Awards Winners Table

AWARD	AGENCY	CLIENT	BRAND	CAMPAIGN	CATEGORY
Grand	Edelman South Africa	Women For Change	Women For Change	The Unburied Casket	Non-Profit
Gold	Edelman South Africa	Women For Change	Women For Change	The Unburied Casket	Social Good – Brands / Positive Change
Gold	Clockwork	The Salvation Army	The Salvation Army x National GBV Command Centre	Escape It	Non-Profit
Gold	Joe Public	Uber Eats South Africa	Uber Eats	Own the Hours Others Abandoned	Delivery Services
Gold	Edelman South Africa	Women For Change	Women For Change	The Unburied Casket	Non-Profit
Silver	McCann Joburg	SA Heart Association	SA Heart® (South African Heart Association)	Check My Beat: Heart Health Tracks	Small Budgets – Non-Profit, Products, Services
Silver	Joe Public	Uber Eats South Africa	Uber Eats	Own the Hours Others Abandoned	Marketing Disruptors
Silver	KAMusesConsultancy	KFC South Africa	KFC Africa	Add Hope The Biggest Hunger Hack	Social Good – Brands / Positive Change
Silver	Clockwork	The Salvation Army	The Salvation Army x National GBV Command Centre	Escape It	Social Good – Diversity, Equity & Inclusion
Silver	Joe Public	Chicken Licken	Chicken Licken	Nothing to Bite Into. Everything to Talk About.	Restaurants
Silver	Joe Public	SAB (AB InBev)	Castle Milk Stout	The Revealing Pour: A print ad that went beyond ink and paper.	Media Innovation – Emerging & New Channels, Existing Channels / Media Effies
Silver	Ogilvy	KFC South Africa	KFC South Africa	Obsessively Building KFC’s Taste Platform to Unlock a New Generation of Fanatics	Sustained Success – Products, Services
Silver	Ogilvy and Ogilvy Singapore	Unilever South Africa	Vaseline PJ	How Vaseline Rewrote the Rules of Trust in the Social Era	Marketing Disruptors
Silver	Ogilvy	Volkswagen Group, South Africa	Volkswagen South Africa	Forever Golf – How VW Turned a 47‑Year Nickname Tradition into a Record‑Breaking Golf 8 Launch.	Engaged Community
Silver	Ogilvy	Audi South Africa	Audi	TikTok Test Drive: How Audi turned TikTok’s scroll into a steering wheel	Social Media
Bronze	KAMusesConsultancy	KFC South Africa	KFC Africa	Add Hope The Biggest Hunger Hack	Corporate Reputation
Bronze	Clockwork	The Salvation Army	The Salvation Army x National GBV Command Centre	Escape It	Media Idea / Media Effies
Bronze	Clockwork	The Salvation Army	The Salvation Army x National GBV Command Centre	Escape It	Small Budgets – Non-Profit, Products, Services
Bronze	Joe Public	SAB (AB InBev)	Castle Milk Stout	The Revealing Pour: A print ad that went beyond ink and paper.	Small Budgets – Non-Profit, Products, Services
Bronze	Joe Public	Takealot	Takealot	Takealot: the marketing case for hyperlocal marketing	Multicultural – Products, Services
Bronze	Ogilvy	Google	Google	What Happens When Search Never Leaves TheGen Z Feed?	Youth Marketing
Bronze	Joe Public	SAB (ABInBev)	Flying Fish	Out Of Your Home: How We Made Flying Fish impossible to ignore	Media Innovation – Emerging & New Channels, Existing Channels / Media Effies
Bronze	Ogilvy	YUM Brands	KFC South Africa	When Everyone Went Cheap, KFC Went Bottomless	Seasonal Marketing – Products, Services
Bronze	Promise Group	SAB (AB InBev)	Castle Lite	The Draught Story	Sustained Success – Products, Services
Bronze	Boundless	South African Breweries	South African Breweries	Forever Committed	Corporate Reputation
Bronze	Ogilvy	Volkswagen Group, South Africa	Volkswagen South Africa	Forever Golf – How VW Turned a 47‑Year Nickname Tradition into a Record‑Breaking Golf 8 Launch.	Brand Content & Entertainment
Bronze	Ogilvy	SAB (AB InBev)	Carling Black Label	Carling Black Label – Be The Champion Coach: reimagined as the highest-stakes fan mechanic in SA football	Engaged Community

Effie Awards South Africa is hosted by the Association for Communication and Advertising (ACA) and sponsored by Nedbank, South African Breweries (AB InBev), Unilever, Heineken Beverages, Discovery, Emeris, IAS, Eatbigfish Africa, Investec, Alt Studios, Boundless and Motion Ads.

Effie South Africa also thanks Effie Global Insights partner Ipsos, 2026 Effie Awards SA media partners Modern Marketing and Bizcommunity, and contributing organisations, Tiger Brands, Mondelēz, PepsiCo and GIB Insurance.

EFFIE AWARDS
www.effieawards.co.za

Recognising Opportunities In AI To Accelerate Growth

Modern Marketing

October 21, 2026

Recognising Opportunities In AI To Accelerate Growth — Kwena Semenya, Machine

Kwena Semenya, Senior Creative Strategist at Machine, writes when every brand can produce more, judgement becomes the advantage. The easiest return to demonstrate on a marketing investment in AI is a saving. A task takes fewer hours, production costs fall and a campaign generates more versions within the same budget. These are useful gains, particularly for marketing teams under pressure to prove their contribution to the business.

But what happens to the quality of the decisions behind the work? A brand can become faster and cheaper to run while becoming easier to overlook. If AI adoption concentrates entirely on reducing the resources needed to produce marketing, businesses risk weakening the very capabilities that give that marketing value: understanding people, recognising an original idea and deciding when to take a creative risk.

As production becomes more accessible, those capabilities deserve greater investment.

Conversations with four leaders at Google brought this tension into focus. Across their different perspectives on AI and marketing, a common concern emerged…efficiency alone is too narrow an ambition for a technology with the potential to expand what creative teams can do.

Neil Hoyne, Google’s Chief Strategist, described the consequences of an excessive reliance on certainty, ‘They go for the sure thing, and then they wonder why they’re not differentiating themselves.’

It is a familiar problem in marketing. Evidence helps teams make informed decisions, but it can also become a shield against making difficult ones. A concept that resembles something successful is easier to defend in a meeting. An unfamiliar idea demands more conviction from the people proposing it and more trust from those approving it.

AI can accelerate that preference for the familiar if teams use it chiefly to reproduce established patterns. The result may be polished, relevant and technically competent, yet offer little reason to remember which brand produced it.

The responsibility for avoiding that outcome sits with the people commissioning and evaluating the work. They must decide what the brand wants to stand for, which conventions it should challenge and how much uncertainty they are prepared to accept.

This matters locally, where cultural understanding requires more than inserting a Southafricanism into a global campaign. Humour, aspiration, status and belonging carry different meanings across communities and contexts. A line can be linguistically accurate and still feel borrowed. Recognising that difference requires proximity to the people a brand hopes to reach.

That understanding takes time; listening, observing, questioning assumptions and allowing an insight to develop before turning it into an execution. If every hour saved through AI is removed from the budget, where will that work happen?

Amy Bloemendaal, Global Lead on Google’s Accenture account, raised a related concern in our conversation: businesses that focus only on deductions and efficiency can miss opportunities to use AI to accelerate growth.

For marketing leaders, this should change the investment discussion. Alongside asking how much time a tool saves, they should ask what the team can now attempt. Could it explore more creative directions, investigate an overlooked audience or test an idea that previously seemed too expensive to pursue?

Aprajita Jain, Google’s Chief Brand and Creative Marketing Evangelist, described a useful division of labour, ‘AI builds the engine; humans provide the empathy.’

The practical challenge is making room for that empathy in the workflow. Giving a team better tools achieves little if its brief remains shallow, its deadlines leave no room for reflection and its approval process rewards predictable work.

The research partnership between Google DeepMind and film studio A24 offers an interesting approach. Its stated ambition includes involving filmmakers directly in shaping technology around their creative processes. That is a useful principle for brands too; the people responsible for creative quality should help determine how the tools are used.

The brief itself also deserves more scrutiny. Mélissa Chan-Cheape, a Product Marketing Manager at Google, pointed to the information people leave unsaid when asking AI to help tell a story.

Marketers should recognise that problem. Briefs often contain confident statements about audiences without explaining the observation behind them. Terms such as ‘authentic’, ‘relatable’ and ‘engaging’ can conceal an absence of clear thinking. A fluent response to such a brief may make that weakness harder to spot.

Creative judgement therefore begins before generation. It involves asking what the audience actually cares about, what evidence supports the proposed insight and what the brand has earned the right to say.

It also continues after generation. Someone must reject the plausible but generic option, recognise the promising idea and take responsibility for the final choice.

Marketing leaders should assess AI adoption against those standards as well as cost and speed. Savings have strategic value when they create capacity for better decisions and more ambitious work. Producing more is increasingly easy. Giving people a reason to care remains the harder job.

MACHINE
www.thisismachine.co.za

Harry’s Printers Announce New Store Opening

Modern Marketing

October 21, 2026

Harry’s Printers Announce New Store Opening

Harry’s Printers recently opened a new branch at Beacon Bay Crossing, in KuGompo City, Eastern Cape. The branch celebrated with a grand opening, with Algoa FM presenter Damian Schmidt sharing in the experience.

Harry’s, a family-owned enterprise, with four branches (two in East London, one in Gqeberha, and a satellite in Tshwane) can be traced back to 1929, some 97 years, which marks another company milestone.

‘This new branch is a landmark moment in Harry’s history as the 4th generation, the first ever female only leadership in the company’s history with Poonam and Priya Harry, taking the helm. and innovating the business into a new era,’ said Poonam Harry, director: business development, ‘We are so excited about the possibilities and opportunities that exist in our ever changing print and communication industry, and are proud and humbled to take forward our rich legacy backed by an amazing capable team and partners.’

When Harry’s ventured into full-colour commercial printing, they adopted the vibrant macaw parrot to represent the world of colour offered. As the company has evolved, the parrot has become a symbol of its expansion, depicted as the vivid and colourful parrot soaring in full flight with an expansive wingspan. This imagery symbolises the diversity of services now provided by the Harry’s Group.

Fellow outlets at the centre celebrated alongside the printing business with gifts and prize give aways, which included a voucher from Harry’s.

C1W Initiative

Change 1 Woman (C1W) aims to empower women in the branding, print and signage industries. As part of this initiative, Modern Marketing would like to spotlight women-focused content like this piece. If you have any trend/business articles related to the signage, branding and printing industries, please email content to: info@c1w.co.za. Follow C1W on Facebook and LinkedIn for more updates.

CHANGE ONE WOMAN
https://www.c1w.co.za/get-involved/

HARRY’S PRINTERS
+27 43 703 8800
poonam@harrys.co.za
www.harrys.co.za

Hot Cares Announces 2026 Teddython

Modern Marketing

October 21, 2026

Hot Cares NPC is the charity arm of HOT 102.7FM. Hot Cares dedicate their efforts to providing much-needed assistance to people facing difficult circumstances. Their work is focused on four key areas: humanitarian and welfare, medical, educational, and animal welfare.

Each year, Hot Cares and HOT 102.7FM host its flagship ‘FUNdraiser’, the Teddython. This full-day, live broadcast sees the presenters and team answering phones and taking donations from individuals and companies, all in the spirit of giving.

Over the years, this event has become a highlight on their calendar, raising R7.3 million in 2021 and R31.6 million in 2025. Beyond the fundraising, it’s a day of fun, excitement, and unity; proof of what can be achieved when a community comes together for good.

How To Make a Meaningful Difference

Hot Cares relies primarily on the support of the community to sustain its activities throughout the year and donations can take many forms including:

– Financial contributions.
– Products such as building materials, food, clothing, medical equipment, furniture, and pet food.
– Services like plumbing, medical expertise, landscaping, or educational assistance.

Support can be once-off, monthly, or ad-hoc. As a registered Public Benefit Organisation, Hot Cares can issue Section 18A tax certificate for all financial donations and goods in kind.

Teddython 2026

This year’s Teddython takes place at Papachinos in Broadacres on 6 November 2026.

‘We’re all aware of the immense need across our country at this time,’ said the Hot Cares team, ‘We have thus set our sights high and hope, with your help, to reach our target of R20 million during the 12 hours (6am-6pm).

‘We would love to welcome you into the Hot Cares family and invite you to play your part in making a positive difference, whether financially, through goods, or with services.

Please see the below contact details for more information.

HOT CARES
info@hotcares.co.za
www.hotcares.co.za

Hollard Unveils Refreshed Brand Positioning

Modern Marketing

October 21, 2026

Hazel Chimhandamba, Hollard.

At the heart of the Hollard Insurance Group’s refreshed brand positioning is a simple belief: while uncertainty is inevitable, people and businesses deserve the confidence to navigate it. ‘Be More Sure’ is Hollard’s commitment to helping customers better understand risk, make informed decisions and move forward with greater certainty when it matters most.

In an increasingly interconnected and unpredictable world, people and businesses need more than insurance cover. They need the confidence to make decisions, seize opportunities and plan for the future. Hollard sees its role as being the trusted partner that helps them do exactly that.

Hazel Chimhandamba, Chief Marketing Officer at Hollard, says the refreshed positioning builds on the foundation of Hollard’s successful ‘Insure Your Unsure’ campaign. Hollard is now elevating its overarching brand story around a universal human truth: the search for certainty in an uncertain world.

‘We’ve never believed in catastrophising insurance because of the meaningful role it plays in driving societal impact. Instead, we acknowledge that the world is changing faster than ever, bringing new opportunities, challenges and risks. Whether you’re running a business, pursuing your career aspirations or simply planning for the future, the need for certainty is universal. At Hollard, we see our role as helping people and businesses navigate the unknown with greater confidence and peace of mind, enabling them to be more sure when it matters most.’

The positioning draws inspiration from a behaviour that has become second nature in modern life: searching for answers. Every day, people turn to search engines, AI tools and digital platforms to understand the world around them. They search for answers about their health, finances, families, businesses and future aspirations. Some searches are serious, some practical and others unexpected or even amusing. Yet behind them all lies a common desire to be more sure.

Ultimately, people are searching for certainty. Hollard believes that need has never been more relevant.

‘This insight became the catalyst for our new brand platform,’ said Chimhandamba. ‘As a business, our strength lies in connecting the dots across risks that are increasingly linked. Our ability to see the bigger picture enables us to provide more holistic and proactive risk management solutions. That is what ‘Be More Sure’ represents.’

Today’s risks no longer exist in isolation. Technology influences security, climate events affect infrastructure and supply chains, and economic pressures have an impact on consumers and businesses alike.

Hollard’s strength lies in understanding these connections and combining insurance expertise, risk management and prevention capabilities, as well as leveraging trusted brokers and partners to help customers better understand, anticipate and manage the risks that matter most.

While no one can remove all of life’s uncertainties, Hollard understands its role to give people and businesses greater confidence to navigate them.

Chimhandamba says the same principle applies to building a strong and relevant brand.

‘Staying relevant requires a deep understanding of how customer and business needs are evolving and where new risks are emerging. For us, that means continually listening, learning and looking ahead so that we can close gaps, create value, instil trust and help customers navigate an increasingly complex world with greater confidence.’

She adds that a brand promise must be demonstrated through action, not words alone.

‘Be More Sure’ is not only our campaign tagline. It is a commitment that should be reflected in every experience customers and businesses, brokers and partners have with Hollard, from the solutions we offer to the way we show up and deliver on our brand promise.’

‘Our ambition is to deepen our relevance in the markets we serve, strengthen the partnerships that help us create value and continue evolving our solutions to meet the changing needs of people and businesses across the continent, through Hollard International’ said Chimhandamba.

HOLLARD
https://www.hollard.co.za/

Communities Must Be Involved Directly In The Design Of AI Systems

Modern Marketing

October 21, 2026

Communities Must Be Involved Directly In The Design Of AI System

Thrishni Subramoney, senior communications specialist, Flow Communications, writes why inclusive AI is not a luxury, but a human right. At the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) in 2025, world leaders hailed artificial intelligence as the great equaliser.

But realistically, with hundreds of millions of people across Africa still lacking basic internet connectivity, we are watching a digital revolution unfold that risks leaving the most vulnerable communities behind. At its heart, this is a question of digital rights.

Simply put, this is the idea that life-changing technologies should be accessible to everyone, regardless of geography, digital literacy or language. In the modern world, access to information is a human right. Without it, an individual is cut off from the digital economy and technologies needed for survival and opportunity.

At the WSIS summit, South Africa rightly championed the concept of ‘rights-respecting digital development’. It’s a school of thought that posits AI systems that overlook local languages, rural communities or digitally excluded populations risk reinforcing existing inequalities rather than reducing them.

A Stark Linguistic Divide

Africa boasts more than 2 000 distinct languages, yet these languages are barely represented online. Initiatives like Masakhane work to strengthen natural language processing (NLP) research for African languages. Without intentional design like this, an AI healthcare bot trained exclusively on English data is useless to an isiZulu speaker in rural KwaZulu-Natal.

At Flow Communications, we grapple with these realities daily. Flow managing director Tiffany Turkington-Palmer said, ‘When we work with clients in the development sector, such as environmental communicators or global multilateral organisations, we advocate for digital solutions that operate smoothly in low-bandwidth environments and incorporate local languages where necessary. Where AI can’t get the job done, we will ensure that our work is translated and accessible.’

There is considerable potential for artificial intelligence to improve development outcomes across the continent. But these must be tailored to socio-economic realities. For example, AI-powered agricultural advisory services that operate via voice commands on a standard cellphone immediately bypass literacy barriers for rural farmers.

Similarly, offline-first digital solutions ensure that communities with limited connectivity are not entirely cut off from citizen service platforms and digital health and education platforms.

However, achieving this requires a fundamental shift in how governments and tech developers approach design.

Funding Inclusion Is Key

Donors and policymakers must insist on funding mechanisms that actively support underserved and rural communities. Crucially, we must involve these communities directly in the design and testing of these AI systems to proactively address the bias that creeps into algorithms and ensure representation that is authentic. AI must be a tool that complements existing services rather than creating new barriers for already underserved communities.

Inclusive AI is not a luxury; it is a human right. Organisations that place digital rights and accessibility at the heart of their AI development will create solutions that serve more people, more fairly. Only through rights-respecting digital development can we ensure that the African continent moves from merely participating in the Fourth Industrial Revolution to actively shaping it.

FLOW COMMUNICATIONS
www.flowsa.com

Outdoor Media Has Physical Presence That’s Difficult To Replicate

Modern Marketing

October 21, 2026

Remi du Preez, Managing Director of Polygon, writes why digital out of home (DOOH) should be the next screen for social-led campaigns. Generally speaking, what social media agencies are very good at is getting their brands noticed in the feed. They understand how to tell a story, how to communicate reasons to buy succinctly, and how quickly people consume content. They have built their businesses around having their finger on the pulse, and creating work that can keep up with the fast-moving digital world.

The problem, though, is that the feed is getting harder to win. With the algorithmic goalposts constantly moving, even an exceptionally well thought-through post can disappear quicker than you can swipe a thumb. And, given the sheer volume of content being published every second of every day, brands that compete in the social realm find themselves facing a daily battle to retain eyeballs, before they move on, or glaze over.

But what if the content did not have to stay there? I think there is a much bigger opportunity for social media agencies to start looking at DOOH as an extension of the campaigns they are already creating. And I am not talking about a separate OOH campaign that needs to be handed over to someone else. Rather, I mean another screen for the same idea. In other words, take great social content, and boost it into the real world.

Why The Real World Matters

We know that digital campaigns can work harder when OOH is added to the media mix. Kantar research into media effectiveness has shown the value of combining digital and offline channels, while a more recent APAC analysis found that combining TikTok with OOH delivered 38% incremental reach and improved cost efficiency by 29%.

Moreover, Kantar’s research consistently shows that consumers are highly receptive to advertising in physical environments, with OOH ranked as the most preferred advertising channel in South Africa.

I think that last point is becoming more relevant, as it offers social agencies an interesting opportunity: adding OOH does not simply extend the reach of digital content; it puts that content into an environment consumers already view more positively. There is a lot online now that people are not entirely sure they can trust, and the rise of AI-generated content is exacerbating this uncertainty. It is becoming harder to know what is genuine and, in some cases, whether there is even a real person behind what you are seeing.

Outdoor media has a physical presence that is difficult to replicate. When a social campaign suddenly appears on a screen in the real world, it feels bigger because it is bigger. The audience is no longer limited to the people a platform has chosen to serve it to.

For social agencies, the interesting part is that programmatic DOOH is making this far easier to do than it once was. OOH has traditionally been associated with long booking periods and large budgets, and while that model does have its place, it is not the only way to use the medium anymore.

Take for instance a social campaign, which might only need DOOH for a week as an added layer to a primarily online campaign. If an influencer is promoting a cosmetics brand, for example, that content could be shared on digital screens in a mall where the target customer is likely to be, at a fraction of the budget of what a longer, big brand campaign across a national outdoor media network might cost.

The content can move quickly too. For example, through Polygon’s aggregated DOOH network, a campaign can go live within a matter of hours, offering social media agencies the same agility in the real world that their brands expect in the social world. This starts to look very different from the traditional idea of buying a billboard.

Bringing A Social Expression To The Real World

We have already seen what can happen when content moves easily between digital and physical environments. One beautiful example of the power of a social-led DOOH execution is Polygon’s recent collaboration with Rimmel for its ‘Beauty in Real Time’ campaign.

Consumers had photographs taken as part of an activation and those images were then flighted onto digital screens in the mall almost immediately. Seeing yourself appear on a billboard became part of the experience, which could then be shared back into social media. This demonstrated that content created for one environment can have a much bigger life when it moves into another.

This provides an exciting commercial opportunity for social agencies as well. Many already work with clients that instinctively spend their marketing budgets online and would never have considered DOOH because they assume it is too expensive or complicated. But the agency already has the client relationship. It already understands the audience and is creating the content. Incorporating DOOH into the rate card is therefore not an enormous leap. Nor does the agency need to become an OOH specialist to do it, it simply needs the right partner to make the process easier.

Social agencies are already creating the content and designing the campaign, digital out of home media simply gives that work somewhere else to go.

TRACTOR OUTDOOR
www.tractoroutdoor.com

Public Relations Has Become The Next Wave Of Trust In The World Of AI

Modern Marketing

October 21, 2026

Tamryn Geldenhuys, Lemon Sorbet PR.

Tamryn Geldenhuys, Reputation Strategist, Lemon Sorbet Marketing writes that the brands AI recommends are already the ones vouched for on the wider web, and earning those recommendations comes down to earned PR.

A Muck Rack analysis of more than 25 million citations across ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini found that earned media accounts for 84% of all AI citations. Ahrefs also did a study across 75,000 companies found that brand mentions were roughly three times more impactful than backlinks. Public relations has become the next wave of trust in the world of AI because, for most of its history, the work done by PR has earned trust with audiences through coverage and credibility. Now it earns trust with the machines the audiences ask first, especially in South Africa.

The audience here has moved rapidly on AI adoption with 70% of adults having used an AI chatbot. The country is now in the lead in Africa in generative AI adoption with 23.1% of the working age population using generative AI tools compared with the 17.8% global average.

What does this mean for the South African brand? It changes what you’re competing for. First prize has become a brand mention inside the answer. Now the goal is to achieve this brand mention without falling into the keyword stuffing trap, but instead by creating gravitas and depth. Large language models (LLMs) weigh authority and agreement across many sources and then select those they deem trustworthy, the companies that are already being talked about on platforms people trust and use.

A lot of companies have turned to generative engine optimisation (GEO) and answer engine optimisation (AEO) with schema markup, cleaner site structures, faster pagers and tidier metadata, to achieve LLM results. While this work is important and relevant, making sites easier to read by machines, readability and credibility are very different things. And credibility scores highly with the LLMs.

PR work prioritises credibility. A brand earns citations by behaving like a source worth citing by publishing clear, accurate and useful material that a machine can lift and a person can verify. This approach holds a consistent identity across the web so the models know your brand and your earned coverage, commentary and third-party references from the outlets and experts the models already trust starts to build up your LLM visibility.

Optimisation makes your brand legible, but reputation makes it recommended, the first can be done in a week, the rest is built over time and pays back more than once. Reaching a customer today, lifting search over months and establishing credibility layer by layer teaches the machine to name the brand.

When a supplier offers to place a brand inside an answer engine within weeks through technical work, you will get results but are they on the right premise? The machine is rewarding volume not trust, and trust is absolutely critical today. You want to win your discovery because when customers find you, whether it is online through traditional search or with an LLM, you want them to trust what you offer and who you are.

For South African brands, the opportunity is wide open. The MO Agency 2026 AI Visibility Report analysed 3,417 AI answers and 23. 684 citations across 19 industries and more than 260 brands and they found no South African brands scored higher than 75 out of 100 for AI visibility. This is room for brands to grow and expand and this can be built, systematically on a foundation of trust through genuine editorial credibility.

This does not make GEO or AEO work irrelevant, rather these disciplines should run in parallel with PR as it is the latter that delivers the sustained, independently verified credibility required to earn LLM and customer trust.

LEMON SORBET PR
https://lemonsorbet.co.za

Build For People, Not Off Them

Modern Marketing

October 21, 2026

Build For People, Not Off Them — Nomonde Keswa, Delta Victor Bravo.

Nomonde Keswa, Strategy Director at Delta Victor Bravo (representing eatbigfish in Africa), says stop fighting for a slice, and bake a new pie. There is a genre of WhatsApp group chat unique to event planning committees: half admin, half hostage negotiation (if you know, you know). Ours required décor for a friend’s bridal shower, but on a budget that ruled out full-service suppliers (with their ‘full service’ price tag).

We opted for a more DIY approach, which demanded more time, decision-making, and patience than any of us possessed. While hunting for individual décor items, I stumbled across an online ‘event in a box’ provider: you pick a theme, add a guest count, and they deliver a kit of parts ready for a fully styled tablescape. I did not use them, but I just stood there thinking: why did nobody tell me this existed?

That is the feeling relevant market creation gives a consumer, something they did not know they needed, but absolutely did. This kind of thinking shows up at every level of life on this continent, from stokvels to fintech unicorns. When the options on offer don’t fit, someone eventually stops choosing between them and builds a third path instead.

There is a real difference between fighting for a slice of an existing pie and baking one nobody has tasted yet. Fighting for a slice in highly penetrated markets can cap growth, as you are contending for a thin sliver against a competitor defending just as hard as you are attacking. Market creation, however, is slower to start and harder to get right. But when it works, there is no ceiling on growth because you are pulling in new demand and spend, rather than splitting an existing market.

Nothing Here Was Built To Fit

Eatbigfish Africa’s white paper last year, Africa’s Beautiful Constraints, includes a chapter on ‘imported answers to local questions’ highlighting the arrogance of assuming a strategy built in London will simply succeed in Lagos or Johannesburg. But strategy is not the only import. Imported answers, be they products, services, solutions, formulations, pack sizes, payment terms, or credit models, rarely work effectively when applied to African problems. While established market norms can sometimes persist unchallenged for years, more often, and more excitingly, Africans forge new paths around them instead.

That instinct shows up at every scale, even if the stakes are nowhere near the same: a bridal shower committee working around a decor industry that only offers two extremes; a spaza shop working around a supply chain that never reached it; a stokvel working around a bank that never extended it credit. Constraints are not rare here, and neither is the instinct for working around them.

Most people’s everyday ‘workaround instincts’ never become businesses. Yet, it is the reformulated recipe, the extra tissue oil squeezed into a bottle of body lotion, or the financial system aunties run entirely out of a notebook, that represent insights waiting to be turned into opportunity.

That is where market creation actually starts: observing and noticing what people are already improvising, and building solutions that remove the need to improvise at all. Do it well, and you do not just serve an unmet need; you reset what the whole category is expected to deliver, and everyone who follows has to catch up to a standard you have set.

When Instinct Scales

In the banking sector, the well-known fintech M-Pesa did not beat banks at their own game. Instead, it made an entire population visible to a financial system that had previously ignored them.

In the retail sector, long before sustainability became a boardroom topic, spaza shops and township trade had already been operating with the logic now seen in Skubu, the South African refill-grocery model in Diepsloot, where customers bring their own containers and pay only for what they need.

When it comes to savings, stokvels and Ajos have pooled resources for generations, precisely because formal credit was never designed with their participants in mind. PiggyVest and Cowrywise did not invent community-based saving, despite what their pitch decks might claim. They simply observed what our mothers and aunties already knew how to do and provided an app for it.

None of these businesses had superior data compared to their competitors. I imagine banks had more data on more people than M-Pesa did at its launch. What these businesses did have was the ability to pay attention. Nobody ran a spreadsheet and discovered people were already swapping airtime as a stand-in for cash. Someone noticed it happening and built a solution that addressed what was already occurring. That is the fundamental skill underpinning every example above.

For marketers, it is about getting out from behind our desks long enough to observe how people are already solving the very problem we are paid to solve for them.

Build For People, Not Off Them

Lastly, irrespective of whether you are creating a market or competing in one, you can build a product that is better for African consumers. Or you can build one that extracts from them. Always choose to be better for consumers.

I still do not know why nobody told me event-in-a-box suppliers existed. But I know the value of that feeling. For marketers, the message is to observe more, and build for the continent instead of off it. You will win more than a customer, or a slice of the pie, you will get to decide what a whole new pie tastes like from there.

DELTA VICTOR BRAVO
www.deltavictorbravo.com

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